The Real Fry
by Enhas
Summary: Leela thinks that Fry may be hiding something from her.


Author's Note: I don't own Futurama or anything to do with it, and this is strictly a non-profit only thing.

Timeline: Pre-**The Sting**. I wanted to write something a bit more positive after _No Second Chances_ and it shouldn't be as depressing as most of my other works..

* * *

It was another ordinary day at Planet Express, at least in the mind of Turanga Leela. Having worked for the delivery company for years, she was used to the routine and often life-threatening situations on a daily basis which kept her alert, if nothing else. But there was something missing in her life that she desperately needed and didn't want to admit to others, in fear of looking weak. Something, or _someone_. 

Leela could not find the right man. She didn't know if she had set her standards too high or if she was just an unlucky loser when it came to love, but everyone she had ever been with turned out to be jerks. Not to mention Zapp. Leela could never forget him no matter how hard she tried to do so, as if the image of him were burned to the inside of her eyelid with acid. The fact that he didn't let her forget it anytime they met was no picnic, either.

It was late in the afternoon, and her day of work was over. The others had gone, and Fry had left the building in a sprint almost immediately after the final delivery for the day was finished. She vaguely remembered him saying to Bender that he had something important to do, though she didn't remember Bender's reply. Leela figured that it had something to do with his shiny metal ass, as it usually did.

She checked the time. It was about five, which meant another boring night of doing nothing but watching TV and petting Nibbler. Not to mention feeding him, which cost Leela a big chunk of her paycheck. Leela loved the little thing but dearly wished that his appetite wasn't so large.

_What is it about me? Is it my eye or something I'm not seeing?_ she thought._ I'm getting old, well maybe not so old.. but plenty of people my age are settled down and have kids._

Glancing over to the couch across the room from her chair, she noticed Fry's outline on one side of it which was made from years of just sitting there when he wasn't doing anything. Which was a lot. He could call it relaxing, but Leela would say that he was just being lazy and wasting his life away in front of the TV set. Heading to the front door and donning her green coat (for it was cool at that time of the year), she left the building for the walk usual walk home.

_Being sacked out in front of a TV is exactly what you do most nights yourself! When was the last time you've been on a date?_

Once or twice, she considered taking up his offer for a date but turned away from him at the last minute. Leela remembered that he had been visibly hurt, but he told her that he wouldn't stop trying and that he still wanted to be her friend. Although she wouldn't easily admit it to anyone, he had come closest to being the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with but something critical was missing. And without it, nothing would matter in the long run.

What was missing was true maturity, at least in her mind. Leela knew that Fry thought that she didn't think much of him, but she did. Very often, in fact. She loved him as a friend but would gladly go further if he would make the right step. A rapid change once took hold of him in the form of parasitic worms that made him smarter, and she wanted him. But only later did she realize that for the most part she lusted after who he had become and didn't love him, and understood exactly why Fry decided to get rid of them. They made him into something that both he and Leela wanted him to be, but it wasn't _right_. It was cheating, not to mention what would have happened had he kept the worms for too long. Probably a slow, agonizing death of some kind would have been the result.

During the time-skipping period, they were very briefly married. Leela never knew what had happened to make it so, but in the end she was happy that they didn't stay together. She figured that she must have been impulsive (something that she was rarely ever, if at all), and rashly decided to marry him for some reason. She clearly saw that Fry was in pain for many weeks after, but she knew in her heart that neither of them were ready for marriage at that time. Especially Fry. Which is why one day she along with the others decided to take him around for a day to let him do whatever he wanted to do, since he seemed so sad. Due to the Lucy Liu-bot, that turned out to be a bad idea, and that was what kept Leela from forming a relationship with Fry: his lack of maturity, and sometimes common sense. Mere months after that was the Roswell incident which was one of the most disturbing things she ever remembered, and the fact that Fry was his _own grandfather_ was not something she could easily forget.

_He shows signs of being a real man at times, and before I know it he's back to being an idiot. I know he can't change completely and I don't expect him to, but he's just too childish. I would want to be with him, but only if he's ready and he really knows it. But it doesn't look like he'll ever be that way, and what should I do? Wait for him to grow up, or look for someone else?_

Leela noticed that she had been lost in her thoughts for quite a while while walking, and the object of them appeared to be about ten feet in front of her carrying a small bundle of pink and white flowers. He took no notice of her and disappeared inside the doorway of a nearby restaurant to her right, and Leela remembered that he said he was doing something important. Her curiosity got the better of her, and she peered through the window with her face pressed softly against the glass.

Seated at a table nearby was an attractive, shoulder-length haired blonde whose eyes lit up as Fry neared and presented the flowers to her. They then kissed and he took his seat opposite the woman, and began a conversation. Leela couldn't read lips to decipher what they were saying to each other, so she decided to leave before she was noticed and taken for a hungry hobo gawking at food.

_So this is Fry's secret. Somehow, it wasn't as earth-shattering as I thought it would be.._

* * *

The next day, Leela decided to ask Fry about his new girlfriend. She would be polite about it, as he was to her when she had found someone new (which sadly, never lasted very long). Fry never liked any of Leela's boyfriends for quite obvious reasons, and in several cases he was the one who removed the blinder from her eye to show her the real person she was dating. 

Alkazar was the most notable case. If it weren't for Fry discovering the truth about him, she would still be trapped on his planet to that very day.

However, Leela noticed that Fry had been acting even more strange than usual in the past two or three days. Was it is new girlfriend? Normally, Fry wasn't shy in introducing his new girlfriends to Leela and his friends. Either they had only started dating very recently, or else Fry was hiding something that he didn't want anyone else to know about.

_I guess I'll find out today, when I ask him._ thought Leela.

That day proved to be a slow day for deliveries, which was very odd since it was a Friday. Usually, it seemed as if Friday was a forty-eight hour long day which was survived only by several large cups of coffee and maybe two or three cans of Slurm. Aside from a cold shipment of frozen replacement larynxes to Opera 10, there were no others.

Much later near closing time in the afternoon, Fry was about to run away in the same matter as he had done the previous day but Leela stopped him before he could get far. He looked like he needed to be somewhere else very quickly, away from Planet Express.

"Leela, I gotta go do something important! I don't have any time to talk right now, because I'm going to get something for.. oh, crud!" he said. Clearly he had come close to revealing his secret, but managed to stop himself at the last second. It wasn't good enough though, as Leela then pressed him further about what she had seen the day before.

"For your girlfriend?" said Leela. "Why are you keeping her a secret, Fry?"

Fry froze for a second, and then seemed to breathe a small sigh of relief. But then he realized that he was caught in a trap, and his eyes darted back in forth around the room to look at anything but Leela in that moment. "I, uh.. oh, yeah! My girlfriend! Her name is, uh.."

His eyes moved back to look at Leela briefly, and then moved to spot Bender having a drink on the opposite side of the room. Back and forth they went for about ten seconds before he spoke again, and Leela groaned.

"Lee, ender.. Lender! Lendera! Yeah, that's her name! I'm getting something for.. her, yeah! Bye!"

Leela followed him at a distance through many city blocks and tubes, until they came to a shopping mall. Fry was way ahead of her, riding an escalator up to another level until he was out of sight. She was just about to step onto it when she noticed that he was exiting a small shop to her left carrying two small white bags, on the _same level she was currently on_. Hadn't he just went up only about five seconds earlier? How was it even possible?

_It's Fry, you've seen him do the impossible before. He's been emperor of a whole planet, and.. ugh, don't even think of the grandfather thing. But I don't think that he can move or shop at superhuman speed. If he did, then Amy would have laid claim to him long ago._

Deciding to not think much of it, she followed him again further back out of the mall and into the suburbs of the city. Leela realized that what she was doing could constitute stalking in most states, but she wanted to know what he was really up to. "Lendera" couldn't have been the woman's real name, and Leela wondered why Fry had lied to her. And why didn't anyone else know about her, especially his best robot friend who knew everything else about him?

The sun was beginning to set as Fry approached a modest, two-story house with a very nice and well-tended front lawn. As he neared the door the woman opened it and greeted him, and he quickly made his way inside and shut the door behind him.

_Must be her house, and she looks like she's really well off._ thought Leela. _Well, it looks like Fry's spending the night, and it'd be really weird if I just walked in. Why am I here anyway? It's Fry's life, and he can live it whatever way he wants._

A seed of jealously took root within Leela, though she didn't know it at the time as she walked home. It was too late to talk to Fry, but she would speak to him the next morning and he would tell her _everything_. She had hardly undressed and lie down on her bed (with Nibbler in his usual spot) before she fell asleep in exhaustion.

* * *

Leela awoke to find that she had overslept. The time on her clock read three minutes past eleven, and she remembered that her alarm wasn't set to go off on weekends. Yawning, she stretched and then after taking a shower and having a quick brunch which consisted mostly of old bagels (she really needed to do some shopping soon), she decided to make her way back to the house she had lurked at outside the last night on the chance that Fry would still be there.

He was outside on the lawn, and she could hear him yelling something back towards the direction of the front door. What surprised her next was the person who came running out. It wasn't his girlfriend or anyone else that she knew.

Leela gasped. It was a little boy, no more than four or five years old who had the same hair color and features as Fry except for the nose. He was dressed in some sort of uniform, with a blernsball glove on his right hand. Fry picked him up in his arms and was laughing, and the boy did so as well.

For those first few moments Leela thought the scene to be really cute, and it was. But then reality set in and she realized _exactly _what all of it meant, and her head seemed to lose much of its weight. The world spun around her, and she suddenly found it very hard to stand.. the ground met her full force as she fell.

"Oh, my god!" she said to herself, in a low voice.

Fry had a son, obviously with the mystery blonde woman that he didn't want to reveal to anyone else. And by the looks of him, he had been hiding it for close to _four years_, or more. But that didn't make any sense, did it? He had only been unfrozen for around four years which would mean that he had got her pregnant not very long after going to work at Planet Express.

But that's not only what Leela was thinking about. It was the fact that he hid it from everyone, and had other girlfriends at the same time and even tried to date Leela. He was living a double life. Did his girlfriend (or god forbid, even his _wife_) know the kind of person that he really was?

_What scum! God, he has a son and a family and look what he's doing! Why didn't he tell us, or **me**?_

Leela thought to get up and give him a piece of her mind that he so richly deserved (as well as an ass-kicking), but she felt a hand pull her to her feet before she knew what was happening and ended up staring directly into the eyes of Fry. The little boy was not around, obviously gone back inside the house or around back.

"Are you alright? You just kind of fell over in front of my bushes, and most people around here don't do that very often." he said.

Leela was about to punch him in the face, but she decided to speak to him first and _then_ hit him. "Fry, why didn't you tell me?"

Fry looked puzzled at her question and didn't immediately answer, though he let go of her hand and fumbled at one of his coat pockets for a moment or two. "Fry? Do you mean Philip J. Fry, by any chance?"

_There's no way he's going to worm himself out of this._ thought Leela. _But I'll humor him before I rearrange his face.. but his poor son!_

"Don't act like you don't know your own name! You tried that trick at least four times before and it's not getting better this time! Fry, this is horrible! Does your girlfriend know about your life? Your _real _life, and the fact that you've been cheating on her? I expected a lot more out of you, and the fact that you could do this to your own son proves my point that you're an immature pig!" said Leela.

Fry blinked a few times. "You must be another one who has mistaken him for me. I'm not this "Fry" that you're talking about, and I've been getting this about two or three times a week for the past four years!"

"Some excuse!" said Leela.

"No, really. I'm Alan Note, and he must look, dress and sound exactly like me. I didn't use to have this problem, but sometimes I even get his mail. My wife is a bureaucrat, and her boss had an affair with this guy a few years back who looked a lot like me. She has a history of mental illness though, but they let her keep her job because she's supposedly one of the best. Her boss I mean, not my wife!"

"What?" said Leela. "You're not Fry?"

"No. I think this all started when New New York was saved from the garbage ball, and everyone thought that I was one of the heroes with some old man. When I first saw him, I thought he was a clone of me but it turns out he wasn't. There's one way to tell the difference without any doubt, and I'll show you. I hope you're not disgusted!"

Fry (or Alan, as he called himself) placed his left thumb and index finger on his right thumb, and _pulled it right off_. He flicked it into the air and caught it with his right hand, snapping it back into place with a loud crunch. "Bionic thumb. I lost the original in an accident when I was little, but almost nobody can tell it's fake unless I take it off. You know that old trick that some people do where it looks like they pull their thumb apart? Well, I can really do it and my kids like it. Philip doesn't have a bionic thumb, does he?"

Leela knew that Fry did not have any bionic parts of any kind, so the man in front of her was just someone who shared an eerie similarity to him. Fry might have tried to get gills or an extra set of kidneys on more than one occasion (and always from that same guy who Leela had beat up and rescued him from every time), but the thumb proved it. She felt like a fool for being enraged at a complete stranger, albeit someone who looked exactly like Fry down to the same red coat and hair.

"No, he doesn't. Look, I'm really sorry for the way I acted.. Alan."

"That's okay. There's been a lot worse from some people who've mistaken me for him. Are you sure that you're alright? You look like you hit yourself on the head pretty hard. I was about to take my son to a little-league blernsball game but it's not going to start for another hour or so, so I can wait." said Alan.

A sigh of relief escaped Leela's mouth. She had been wrong, and she was glad that she was wrong. It was all some big coincidence and her heart was glad, because if Fry had turned out to be a cheater she could have never forgiven him.

"No, I'm fine. But Fry is still hiding something, and I don't know what it is. Alan, you look like you have a nice family."

"Yeah, my wife and my two kids.. a son and daughter. She went to her parents' house with our daughter today to visit while I'm taking our son around to have fun. We both work hard and try to spend as much time as possible with our kids.. I don't want them to grow up like I did." said Alan. "My parents weren't exactly the best role-models."

"Alan, from what I've seen of you so far you've turned out well." said Leela, smiling at him. "And I barely even know you!"

"Well, I think a lot of the credit has to go to my wife. I don't know where I'd be without her. You haven't given me your name yet, Ms.?"

"Leela. Turanga Leela, but Turanga is like a last name even though it's my first. Sometimes I don't know how it really works, but then again I didn't name myself!"

"Nice meeting you, Leela. Maybe sometime you and Fry, and myself and my wife could get together sometime for dinner." said Alan. Leela's face briefly flushed red before returning to normal, but she still looked visibly embarrassed.

"Well, we're not married or even together and I don't know if we'll ever be." she replied, gloomily.

"You don't know what the future holds, not for sure. If you're meant to be together, you will be. It wasn't smooth sailing between me and Jen at first, but things worked out and we ended up married. You seem like a really nice person, Leela."

After saying goodbye, Leela continued to think about Fry's doppelganger for quite a while. He was everything that Fry wasn't: mature, intelligent and many other things that Fry wouldn't know even if they hit him. But Alan was _not_ Fry. Sure, he might have looked like him in every possible way but Alan was his own man. Plus he was married and had a family of his own, and Leela was not one to even _think_ of taking that away. A thought came into her mind that someone like Alan is what her "ideal Fry" would be if he only applied himself, but she realized that Fry would always be different.

She knew that the "parasite-Fry" was wrong (even though she found him attractive), and attempting to force Fry into her own image of the perfect man would be just was wrong, if not more so. Leela deeply cared for him, but didn't love him in the way he wanted her to.. at least not yet. There were some hurdles that Fry had to clear before she would consider him, and if someone else came along in the meantime she wouldn't stop living. She remembered Alan's words that if Fry was truly meant for her, then they would eventually be together.. but maybe not. It was possible that she could be destined to be with somebody else.

She only hoped that she would make the right decision when the time came.

* * *

Leela was very tired and wanted to go to sleep as soon as she got home (as she did the night before), but she was in for a big surprise that would keep her up all night and then some. The hallway outside apartment 1-I seemed to be completely silent, and not an owl could be heard or seen scuttling about. Turning her key and opening her door, she stumbled in the dark and fumbled for the light switch.

"**SURPRISE**!"

Leela jumped in panic and was ready to attack whoever was lurking in her apartment when she noticed that it was only her friends: Fry, Bender, Amy, The Professor, Hermes, Zoidberg, and even Scruffy who looked a bit bored (as he usually did). Her normally drab white walls were covered in colored red and yellow ribbons and garland, and a large "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LEELA!" banner was hanging above a large rectangular table filled with cake, drinks (alcoholic, of course) and presents. Leela was overjoyed but then slapped herself in the head for her stupidness.

_Ugh! How could I forget that today was my own birthday?_

"Happy birthday, Leela!" said Fry, wearing a party hat on his head and a noise streamer in his mouth. "I don't know where you were all afternoon, but I'm glad that you were gone! Wait, that sounds bad! What I mean is, that we were planning this for you! Look, I'm sorry that I lied to you but I was looking all over for a great present but there was nothing good anywhere! But I found it just today!"

"Oh, Fry! Thank you! And thank everyone else too!" said Leela, taking Fry into her arms for a hug. "But, how did you get in here? Only I have a key to get in, and there's no copies!"

"Bender let us in. Good ol' Bender!" said Fry. Leela scowled for a moment, but the feeling soon left her. "What was this whole thing about a girlfriend, Leela? I don't have a girlfriend! The last girlfriend I had was.. well, I don't want to talk about it but you know who I mean."

"Nothing." replied Leela. She didn't want to talk about Alan and his family (at least right now), especially in front of Bender since she figured that he'd come up with a scheme for Fry to pretend that he was Alan so he could get in the house and case it to be robbed later. Fry probably wouldn't go along with the plan, but she couldn't take the risk.

_Great! Now I'm thinking like Bender!_

"Well, come on and open your presents! Especially mine because it's the best, you'll see!" said Fry.

Leela followed him and glanced at everyone and everything around her. These were her friends, who cared about her enough to organize a party and buy her a lot of really cool things (tax-deductable, as Hermes would say). Fry had even went out of his way to get something special for her, and Leela felt a tug at her heart. Though it ended in disaster, it reminded her of his first X-mas in which he risked his life to buy her an expensive gift with his own money even though they ended up eating its charred remains. It was the thought that counted.

There were many good things about him, and Leela realized it. The real Fry was a person who was loving and cared for others much more than himself, and Leela only wished that he would appear more often than he did. In time, perhaps she may grow to love him.

A piece of her certainly hoped so.

* * *

And that's all. Thanks to the Simpworks IRC channel for some of the ideas, even though it ended up much different than I thought it would be at first. 


End file.
